The Thief River Falls Norskies were the story early in northwestern
Ontario, winning their first 18 games and spending time atop the CJHL
national top 20 rankings, but in the end the Dryden Ice Dogs repeated as
SIJHL regular-season champions, reeling in the Norskies with wins in 11 of
their last 13 games. Dryden – which will host the Dudley Hewitt Cup in late
April – also owned the head-to-head with Thief River Falls, claiming the
last six meetings to help finish with a narrow two-point edge. The Ice Dogs
were paced by a league-leading offence – they scored 272 times, with Jacen
Bracko winning the scoring title of the strength of an SIJHL-best 48 goals.
Between the pipes, Jacob Gnidziejko led the league with a 2.38
goals-against average, just ahead of Landon Pavlisin, who was third at
2.47; the two netminders also tied for third with three shutouts apiece.